SNOW BALL FIGHT!!

Christmas at Johnie and Dee's

Devon's Graduation Party

The first of our friends has graduated!! Devon graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Secondary Education - History. She did her student teaching this past semester at Ozark High School, and this next semester she's going to sub. She's already started applying to teach in the fall, around Springfield and KC. Wouldn't it be great it we all ended up in KC?!!

This is Kelly saying hi!!

Sorry we haven't posted anything in such a long time!!! Here's the latest update:

School is finally over. Brad is elated; I'm a little depressed (this was my favorite semester!). We made it through finals alright, and our grades will be posted on Tuesday.

We both work all week, and then head up to KC Saturday morning. We're so excited to have this week down here to get things done, hang out with a few of our friends who are still down here (Daniel and Rachel, Devon and Brian), and do other fun things like read and sleep!!!

We also wanted to share real quick a couple of cool things that have happened through our church down here... through the prison ministry, recently 4 prisoners were saved and 5 were baptized! Also, our church alone collected 950 boxes for Operation Christmas Child (of course, we do average about 2000 in attendance at our Sunday morning worship attendance). It's just so exciting and encouraging to visibly see God working!

Hopefully since things have calmed down we will be updating you all and posting more often!

Our First Christmas as Husband and Wife!

In response to one of Johnie and Dee's previous posts:

Decorative centerpiece- check! (albeit cheap)

Christmas decoration - check!

Stocking hung - check!

Holiday placemats out - check!

Christmas tree up - check! (Alright, so maybe this isn't our Christmas tree... it's the one in Kentwood Hall, the dorm right behind us. It'll do this Christmas!)

Even if we lack the tree and nice decorations, it's still a wonderful first Christmas together!!! Can't wait to see you all soon!!!

Weekend Fun

Johnie and Dee after a day full of shopping! It was such a fun weekend with them!

I went to the first bridal shower of the year last Saturday morning. It was for Amy, our friend from Harrisonville.

The bride-to-be and me

Some of the girls

One of the really cool things about the shower was that I got to see Bryn's baby, Keenan James, for the first time... he was so precious, but he slept the entire time so I didn't get to play with him. Guess I'll just have to wait 'til next time!

This is an example of what I do in class. The process of determining the rings was extremely complex and took several hours.
I realize this is a strange item to post but I hope it gives everyone a little better idea of what types of projects I work on. This image is a representation of the Huff Statistical model for spatial correlation which determines the overall service area for each McDonald's restaurant in Springfield.

Adventures in humility...

For all of us out there who slip up and say things incorrectly, and then get ridiculed by those who rarely slip up, I have wonderful news for you: the other day Brad saw a commercial for Ci-Ci's, and was thinking about his favorite pizza place, Cheezie's, and then said "I want to go to Chi-Chi's!" So funny... be sure to ridicule him because I don't know if he'll have another slip up for awhile!!!

So maybe this post was pretty random... don't worry, I have pics to add later when I'm at home... so check back in!

Adventures in movie-making...

We only have one week of classes left, and then finals! I can't believe how fast this semester has flown by!

This week, in the class that Brad and I have together, we had to finish up our huge semester project (aka start on it!). It was the one where we had to interview a vet. So, we got to the library at 4 on Monday to 'rip' the three mini-dvds onto the computer, edit and put them together into one movie, and then 'burn' the movie onto three dvds. We were pretty naive as to how long it would all take, thinking it'd only be a few hours and then we'd go home and eat dinner. Boy were we wrong!! We were there til midnight and the first dvd wasn't done burning! Thankfully, they let us leave the computer on all night long so it'd finish burning, and I got there at 7 in the morning and got the dvd, then burned the next two. We were there for a total of 10 hours within a 18 hour period!! Then I made the powerpoint for our presentation and Brad worked on pulling clips out of it for our presentation... he was in the library all Wednesday night and Thursday morning working on it!! We got it all finished up, though, and gave our presentation yesterday afternoon. It all turned out great, and now it's all over! At least we have a little bit more knowledge on movie-making now!

Sorry we don't have any pics... if I remember hopefully we'll get some good pics from this weekend with Johnie and Dee down here!

"Wait"

One of my friends had this poem on her Facebook account. I thought I would share it with you all...

Desperately, helplessly, longingly, I cried;

Quietly, patiently, lovingly, God replied.

I pled and I wept for a clue to my fate…

and the Master so gently said, “Wait.”

“Wait? You say wait?” my indignant reply.

“Lord, I need answers, I need to know why!

Is your hand shortened? Or have you not heard?

By faith I have asked, and I’m claiming your Word.

“My future and all to which I relate

hangs in the balance, and you tell me to ‘Wait?’

I’m needing a ‘yes,’ a go-ahead sign.

Or even a ‘no,’ to which I’ll resign.

“You promised, dear Lord, that if we believe,

we need but to ask, and we shall receive.

Lord, I’ve been asking, and this is my cry:

I’m weary of asking! I need a reply.”

Then quietly, softly, I learned of my fate

as my Master replied again, “Wait.”

So I slumped in my chair, defeated and taut,

and grumbled to God, “So, I’m waiting…for what?”

He seemed then to kneel, and His eyes met with mine…

and He tenderly said, “I could give you a sign.

I could shake the heavens and darken the sun.

I could raise the dead and cause mountains to run,

“I could give all you seek and pleased you would be.

You’d have what you want, but you wouldn’t know me.

You’d not know the depth of My love for each saint.

You’d not know the power that I give to the faint.

“You’d not learn to see through clouds of despair;

you’d not learn to trust just by knowing I’m there.

You’d not know the joy of resting in Me

when darkness and silence are all you can see.

“You’d never experience the fullness of love

when the peace of My spirit descends like a dove.

You would know that I give, and I save, for a start,

but you’d not know the depth of the love of my heart.

“The glow of My comfort late into the night,

the faith that I give when you walk without sight.

The depth that’s beyond getting just what you ask

from an infinite God who makes what you have last.

“You’d never know should your pain quickly flee

what it means that ‘My grace is sufficient for thee.’

Yes, your dearest dreams overnight would come true,

but, oh, the loss, if you missed what I’m doing in you.

“So, be silent, my child, and in time you will see

that the greatest of gifts is to truly know Me.

And though oft’ My answers seem terribly late,

My most precious answer of all is still, ‘Wait.’”

Adventures in cooking....

For dinner tonight we thought we'd try out some chocolate chip pancakes. The last ones turned out great, but we had some "fun" figuring out what temp to heat the skillet at! The pic below is of me with the first pancake we made as a married couple... basically the skillet was way too hot and it started burning real quick, so I tried flipping it over real fast and was quite unsuccessful. Oh well, Brad ate it anyways!! We don't have pics to testify that the last ones were perfect (we ate them before we could take a picture!), so you'll just have to take our word for it!!

One of the Best Nights of My Life

For Christmas Brad took me to see Garth Brooks in concert... it was definitely the greatest gift ever!!

Here's the view of the stage from our amazing seats! Here the stage is set up for Trisha, but after she performed they took nearly everything off of it!

Trisha Yearwood!

My very first picture of GARTH BROOKS!!!!!

On the big screen!

Their final good-bye for the night.

So we finally decided to be cool like our parents and Natalie... took us long enough, right? We may not have lots of cute pics of Titus, but at least we can keep you all updated on what's going on in our lives, however uneventful it may be! Enjoy!